Sam, does the allergic reaction ease up after bathing the kitten? (I know; no kitten enjoys being bathed. But, a lot of times, people's allergies are triggered by what pets have on their fur and not necessarily by the pets, themselves.)_________________I am only a somewhat arbitrary sequence of raised and lowered voltages to which your mind insists upon assigning meaning

GeekBoy's father had a mild stroke on Thursday. They did tests yesterday and determined it's congestive heart failure. We're waiting to see if it's the kind that can be treated or now. He's waiting to hear from his sister more about the situation.
+ we are in a position to be able to afford his flight down there to see his father, regardless of his diagnosis.
+ GeekBoy can work from "home"; his boss doesn't care. In fact, he could even just take those days off.
+ maybe he won't be a jerk to his son and GeekBoy will have a chance to have good memories of his father.

That's a tough diagnosis. I'm sure you're doing research, and sporko may be a better resource, but aside from the medication treatment also includes major lifestyle changes that a lot of patients find really difficult to stick with. Does he have someone who can keep an eye on him? A wife or someone who lives with him? Best of luck to GeekBoy and his dad.

+ I, unintentionally, introduced two friends and they seem to have hit it off
- They're both rebounding, which has got to be exponentially less likely to work than when just one person is...
+ They're both adults, and I'm staying the fuck out of it.
- I don't like the idea that I may have introduced people into a situation that's bound to go horribly wrong._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. Iíll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

FWIW, Dogen, I'm sure you're aware that there's a difference between "unlikely to work" and "bound to go wrong." Besides, there are many measures of success; maybe just having someone for now is all the success either of your friends are looking for, right now. Every chance to succeed is also a chance to fail; don't come down on yourself for introducing folks to that chance._________________I am only a somewhat arbitrary sequence of raised and lowered voltages to which your mind insists upon assigning meaning

so like a month ago, I finally got a job after a year anna haf, tho it's a crap job where I stand around waiting a lot, and I'm only getting 3/5's my old pay so I dunno when I'll get out from under. Technically it's a "seasonal" job too which means it evaporates in six months (or less, depending). And I'm not finding ways to connect with most of the people in my department, which feels isolating, and I'm being put into a relatively isolated area half the time, which is also isolating. (You can add that to having moved to Maine a year ago and still not knowing anyone outside my family because I've spent most of my time here failing at job-hunting). Meanwhile, got a crush on one female co-worker who is one of the few to actually engage with me, and I know that acting on it will go badly for me (it always does). But hey, got a job.

Joined: 09 Jul 2006Posts: 9718Location: I have to be somewhere? ::runs around frantically::

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 9:05 am Post subject:

mouse wrote:

las: on friday you talk about how the business trip went. and then gossip about the people you were meeting with.

+ Everything went great. The very important pre-review was positive. Only some tweaks left.
- Found a major problem.
+ The inspector guy didn't catch it so we could fix it before anyone noticed. And we fixed it even though there is resentment and such between departments due to business management fuckery that is trying to be undone.

+ Saw my massage therapist friend! Great times! Good food! Yay!
- Ow ow ow ow. Apparently I am full of scar tissue an tied up in knots.
- All the travel means I have a cold and laryngitis. Boo._________________Before God created Las he pondered on all the aspects a woman might have, he considered which ones would look good super-inflated and which ones to leave alone.
After much deliberation he gave her a giant comfort zone. - Michael

Joined: 01 Oct 2006Posts: 9129Location: The thing in itself that is Will

Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:45 am Post subject:

It's a pretty bad thing but we have no confessions thread anymore:

+ My friends/peers are all getting into awesome universities now if they hadn't done so last year after graduating. Oxford, UCL, King's/Imperial, etc. 3/4 of my uni is now based at topflight uni's in the UK basically.

--- I am not really feeling actually jealous; I actually felt happy when I heard one of my best friends didn't get into their university of choice. that's spite?_________________When life gives you lemons, some people make lemonade. I just eat them and make a sour face.

+ So I got into a psychiatric doctorate program. That's cool.
- They want a $200 enrollment fee... which I'm going to have to borrow from my mom, because I blew my tax return on silly things like my car insurance and my health insurance deductible that I hit every January.
- They want proof of every childhood vaccine. Hepatits B, polio, TB, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, and chickenpox. Including dates each series was completed. They do the Hep B series in the first 6 months of your life - 29 years ago... who the fuck knows where those records are? They want a letter signed by a healthcare professional stating the date I got the chickenpx. I never went to the doctor. I caught it from my brother and I spent a week in bed at my grandma's with socks on my hands. Who is supposed to write that in a letter?
- They require the financial information of my parents even though I'm 5 years past the date they consider you independent.
+ I think I get at least some vaccines for free through work
- I have to get TB tested twice in the next 3 weeks
+ I need CPR certification, but I can get it for free through work.

This shit is going to get expensive, and I don't even have student loans to draw on yet._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. Iíll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

+ So I got into a psychiatric doctorate program. That's cool.
- They want a $200 enrollment fee... which I'm going to have to borrow from my mom, because I blew my tax return on silly things like my car insurance and my health insurance deductible that I hit every January.
- They want proof of every childhood vaccine. Hepatits B, polio, TB, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, and chickenpox. Including dates each series was completed. They do the Hep B series in the first 6 months of your life - 29 years ago... who the fuck knows where those records are? They want a letter signed by a healthcare professional stating the date I got the chickenpx. I never went to the doctor. I caught it from my brother and I spent a week in bed at my grandma's with socks on my hands. Who is supposed to write that in a letter?
- They require the financial information of my parents even though I'm 5 years past the date they consider you independent.
+ I think I get at least some vaccines for free through work
- I have to get TB tested twice in the next 3 weeks
+ I need CPR certification, but I can get it for free through work.

This shit is going to get expensive, and I don't even have student loans to draw on yet.

they should accept titers for the vaccines. why do you need to be TB tested twice?

also the financial information...they require it? i know that for grad school you have the option to put your parents' info if you want to, but it's not required, and that's on the fafsa. call the financial aid office? that seems...outside their scope._________________

also, jwing--i'm so sorry to hear about it. if you have any general questions about heart failure let me know. obviously you should be getting a lot more info from your doc but it's a disease process that sounds less manageable than it really is. we have a lot of successful patients who come in our outpatient clinic, and those are really the ones who are sick enough to be in our program._________________

they should accept titers for the vaccines. why do you need to be TB tested twice?

I don't know. It just says that I need two tests not less than one week and not more than 12 months apart. Work used to do them annually, but they stopped a few years ago (apparently if you continually test healthcare workers they'll just start coming up positive). Since I haven't had one in the last 12 months, I need to get tested twice.

Quote:

also the financial information...they require it? i know that for grad school you have the option to put your parents' info if you want to, but it's not required, and that's on the fafsa. call the financial aid office? that seems...outside their scope.

The FAFSA even says something about how you may want to include it if you're going to med school or nursing school. PITA is what that is, yo. If you (like I did) google "why does the FAFSA want my parent information" you can find threads on allnurses.com and studentdoctor.com where a bunch of people can't figure out why they ask, but their schools demanded it.

Quote:

also, jwing--i'm so sorry to hear about it. if you have any general questions about heart failure let me know. obviously you should be getting a lot more info from your doc but it's a disease process that sounds less manageable than it really is. we have a lot of successful patients who come in our outpatient clinic, and those are really the ones who are sick enough to be in our program.

I knew you'd have good info.

Michael wrote:

Is this some kind of organ harvesting scheme you've signed up for? wtf?

You pay for graduate school your way, I'll pay my way. Don't judge me!_________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. Iíll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman